Pixtus - Photography Forum, Photographers, Photo Tips

haring · **How do you usually correct blown out skies? -** 09-21-2010, 02:23 PM

How do you usually correct blown out skies? I know there are so many tutorials on youtube but I want to know which method you prefer the most. Which is the fatest, etc.
I mainly shoot weddings so HDR doesn't really work for me. People just move all the time...

rab3rd · 09-21-2010, 02:25 PM

Get it right in the camera to begin with... Once its blown the data is gone. Unless you replace the sky, you cant fix it.

DEMDeepEllumMusic · 09-21-2010, 02:49 PM

You can put a graduated ND filter into your kit- the cokin kind would work best so that you can adjust the density level to fit the shoot.

haring · 09-21-2010, 03:12 PM

I shoot raw. If I pull down the exposure I can see the correctly exposed sky. The problem is that I live in Florida and I shoot a lot of weddings in the Caribbeans where it is impossible to achieve correct exposure all the time for the sky and for my subjects...

WarrenG · 09-21-2010, 03:14 PM

Set your exposure for the sky, then adjust the flash power to properly expose the subjects.

rab3rd · 09-21-2010, 03:15 PM

If you can reduce the exposure and see detail then it wasnt really blown. You can produce an HDR picture from one shot. Or combine the two exposure settings and mask the the two together to get what you want.

rab3rd · 09-21-2010, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarrenG

Set your exposure for the sky, then adjust the flash power to properly expose the subjects.

i.e. get it right in the camera to begin with...

haring · 09-21-2010, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rab3rd

i.e. get it right in the camera to begin with...

You can't all the time. Especially not in weddings.... I shoot raw. If I pull down the exposure I can see the correctly exposed sky. The problem is that I live in Florida and I shoot a lot of weddings in the Caribbeans where it is impossible to achieve correct exposure all the time for the sky and for my subjects...

danchez · 09-21-2010, 05:55 PM

it's called fill flash. Expose for the sky to get correct exposure, use fill flash to light your subjects. You can get it right all the time no matter if you shoot in Florida, the Caribbean or here in Texas.

camera shy · 09-21-2010, 06:04 PM

It's a 'skill' and not a 'trick'.

kayumangi · 10:08 PM

Well I use two layers at least.

With the top layer blend mode set to Multiply to darken everything. I then manually erase the areas i want to brighten on that layer. Since the bottom layer has the original, the erased spots will be "enhanced".

Also, in this situation I had no way to use fill flash, ok maybe if I had the laser thingie from Paul Buff maybe just maybe I could light at least the B&G but then the rest of the gang would still remain dark as it is.

Check this out

Original

Edited

S-Man · 09-21-2010, 06:49 PM

^ At that distance fill flash would do nothing.
(edit: Studio strobe was mentioned in the edited post)
You'd need a LOT of power and a few studio strobes to make it work, which is impractical for wedding work, unless it's a planned formal shoot. Jason Cole comes to mind when I think of this.

Jasmine Star Throws sky exposure to the wind and meters for the subject. If you expose for the sky, the subject will be too dark.
I've found using small apertures helps to get a decent balance between the two, but you won't get that creamy bokeh in the BG. Depends on what you want to do.

kayumangi · 09-21-2010, 06:51 PM

Jasmin Star isn't really a good photographer per se, she is a marketing guru though =)

The laser thingie from Paul Buff coupled with an Einstein do seem to work wonders, I may end up buying one if I do two more of this type of weddings.

S-Man · 09-21-2010, 06:58 PM

Oh I remember seeing the laser thing on the website. It's relatively new right?

J* Is a good Photog IMO. I like her style, it's clean and crisp, bright and lively. What makes her as big as she is, is like you said, her marketing guru-ness and bubbly personality.

Oh, and something else that can help with skies is a CPL Filter.

kayumangi · 09-21-2010, 07:05 PM

Well she's OK but not that good, I mean I can pretty much duplicate her images if given the chance and I'm not even an expert photog =)

But who cares if we shoot crap or not, if you can sell yourself effectively then you're the Rock Star hehehe.

Just visited AB site, it's called the Retro Laser reflector, yup it's pretty new, if we believe the specs it maybe suited for the pool setup I just did.